Consumer Behaviour Introduction (2024)

• Consumer behaviour is a process that involves what takes place before the purchase, during, and after
• The purchaser is not always the user. Who buys more men's underwear, men, women?
• Sometimes a person is influenced by a friend's recommendation or the recommendation from a person who leaves a review on a website
• Consumer behaviour can also involve groups where one is decision maker or when a few or all decide

What Impact do Consumers have on Marketing Strategy?

• Marketers are concerned with satisfying consumer wants and needs
• A marketer will try to persuade you that a product is not just a want but a need
• The better marketers understand consumers, the better they can satisfy them
• Consumer behaviour is important in every part of a marketing plan - Consumers are more involved than ever and more influential than they realize.

  Market Segmentation

• Segmentation is separating consumers into groups
• marketers identify groups of consumers who are similar in one or more ways to try to appeal to particular groups
  • Demographics: the observable measurements of a population's characteristics: birth rate, age distribution, income, gender, family structure, ethnicity, geography (These are all measurable and defined)
  • Psychographics: values,personality and lifestyles AIOs=Activities, Interests, Opinions

    

  • see Table 1-1 (pg 9)for a statistical average of a typical Canadian (female,37.8.....)
  • Statistics Canada (outside link)

Click here to see how familiar you are you with these icons? ICONS

Click again for--What about these Canadian Icons?

Today's icon is becoming more media savvy. The Geico Gecko for instance knows he is selling you his insurance. Mr. Clean Stays Earnest, But Gecko Is Hip And Mr. Peanut Gets A Makeover while Gecko speaks truth `This is an ad, and we know you know it's an ad. Let's drop the pretense.

Marketing's Impact on Consumers

• We are surrounded by marketing stimuli
• Much of world is filtered through marketers
• Popular culture is a product of and an inspiration for marketers

"Where's the Beef?" Marketer's pitch becomes everyday "meme" expression

A meme is an element of culture that spreads from one person to another within a culture. A meme carries cultural ideas, symbols, or practices an can be spread in writing, speech, gestures, rituals, or other imitable phenomena with a mimicked theme.

Memes and Catch Phrases

In 1984 Wendy's was a fast food outlet struggling to standout in a competitive market when a simple little commercialfeaturing 81 year old, Clara Peller was about to change the fortunes of the company and make an impact on popular culture with it's catch phrase "Where's the Beef" Wendy's annual revenue increased by 31 percent, and their little slogan even made its way into the 1984 presidential campaign when one candidate used the phrase against his competitor. Peller went on to become a mini celebrity appearing on talk shows and even Saturday Night Live.

• Holidays have such a connection to spending how we acknowledge cultural events: Christmas! Mother's Day. How many other days can you name? Is there buying involved?
• As we have seen, some product icons such as the Doughboy and Green Giant are more widely known than former prime ministers!

• People often buy things not for what they do but for what they mean ( a brand of beer defines the person; a brand of running shoe tells who you are; the music you choose

• A person can have a Self Concept attachment:the product establishes the user's identity

• A Nostalgic attachment: the product links with the past

see Geico "Chatty Cathy" nostalgia ad http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSPXpc5N6Kg

• Interdependence: the product is part of user's daily routine

see Volkswagen "Everyday" Commercial http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_56vWaaCxjg

see the making of the ad Volkswagen Everyday http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dtnq_cALtDI

• Love: the product elicits emotional bonds warmth, passion or strong emotion

What dogs do for love SPDR http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3sxsGiH5Gw

Magnum Chocolate ad https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9feV-VAmkMg

• World has become smaller because of media (The Global Village)
• Consumers may be devoted to a brand, movie star, celebrity and feel a part of a group
• Digital revolution has caused significant change in consumer behaviour-We can shop/buy 24/7, but is our information safe online?
• Survey show more people are spending time online and are spending less time watching TV and reading newspaper less
• With the rise of Social networking sites, marketers are realizing that more and more the consumer is the producer and creator of content. They are getting more an more involved in social media sites and allowing the consumer to create content
• With this trend in person to person sharing comes the rise of viral content. Marketers are increasingly trying to create ads that will become viral. Expert at creating viral content are the British. See this Aug 2009 article Why do UK Videos Always Seem to Go Viral (outside link) See the T-mobile dance
• Reality TV/versus Reality- shows are opportunities for companies to sponsor product placement

Cadbury Eyebrows

Viral + Social Networks THE OLD SPICE GUY

The Old Spice Guy viral ads were the hit of the summer of 2010. First came the commercials and then came the social networking experiment. The character began responding to specific tweets and facebook comments. According to Jeff Neff of Ad Age, Mr. Mustafa's 186 highly publicized personalized response videos generated more than 34 million views and a billion PR impression in a week, according to P&G. In a single week, views of the personalized ads surpassed the nearly 29 million viral video views of Mr. Mustafa's four TV ads since February. As of July 18, Old Spice, with 94 million views, had become the No. 1 all-time most-viewed sponsored channel on YouTube, Mr. Norton said. Old Spice had eight of the top 11 most-popular videos on YouTube on July 16. In the six days following the start of Mr. Mustafa's personalized videos, he reached more than 100 million followers." (http://adage.com/article?article_id=145096 )

Here he says goodbye and underneath is the case study

How do you follow this up? Well in the summer of 2011 Old Spice introduced their new spokesperson Fabio. But Mustafa wasn't gone, he came back to fight for his position on social media.

Crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcing refers to "the act of taking tasks traditionally performed by an employee or contractor, and outsourcing them to a group of people or community, through an "open call" to a large group of people (a crowd) asking for contributions." Everyday people may be asked to: develop a new technology, carry out a design task refine or carry out the steps to complete a task, systematize or analyze large amounts of data The idea has become popular in business because it harnesses the power of the crowd. It can be controversial. Wikipedia is an example of something that is crowdsourced.

Threadless is a clothing company with a popular e-commerce website selling a unique brand of T-shirt designed by you, for you - literally. They have no designers and pay no attention to trends. Anyone can design a T-shirt.The designs are posted and voted on by the community on its website. Designs with the most attention and votes get produced and sold on the website. Threadless crowdsources the design and then produces and sells them. See a video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gtDBXPBXCg Read how Vitamin Water company Glaceau used crowdsourcing to find a new flavour. http://johnbell.typepad.com/weblog/2010/01/beyond-the-campaign-crowdsourcing-cocreation-with-glaceau.html Read what the Design Community says about Crowdsourcing in Wired http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/03/is-crowdsourcin/

How much of our lives is influenced by marketing? Are our perceptions about reality shaped by marketing?

Is what we see real?

• Think for a minute about the last big movie you saw in the cinema. How many brand name products can you recall seeing? Whether an old time western or a vision of the future, there's no doubt that multiple big name brand products found their way into the scenes.

• Michael Bay's Transformers: Age of Extinction from 2014 featured 55 different brands. In 2015, Furious 7 of the Fast and Furious franchise was stuffed with 48 identifiable brands. Mercedes-Benz took the top spot in 2015 by prominently appearing in nine of the 31 top films that year. (Brandcameo Awards)

• With consumers taking advantage of ad skipping techniques for television shows, marketers finding new to get our attention. We watch a movies/TV and see products strategically placed
• You wouldn't be surprised to see placements in current shows, but now, retro shows in re-runs have virtually placed products that were not even available when the original show was produced Today
• Companies digitally alter old episodes by adding new brands and product placement. This process is called "re-placement."

• In 2003, Absolut took placement to a new level when the product was embedded in the storyline of Sex and the City. In the show, a billboard ad featured a main character's struggling actor boyfriend positioned with an Absolut bottle between his legs, with the tagline "Absolut Hunk."
• A video game user will be immersed in an alternate world that just happens to have some very familiar brands.
• Music is not immune-Lady Gaga's video "Telephone" showed nine brands including her own brand of headphones within nine minutes.
• Sports teams and stars openly sport logos of top brands. That live broadcast of a sporting event you are watching may have a virtually placed billboard that does not exist in the real stadium. That's Augmented Reality
• TV movie The Last Ride (2004) was really an 84 minute commercial for the Pontiac GTO.
• McDonald's has paid Hip Hop artists to integrate the Big Mac into songs
• Reality shows like The Apprentice have their contestants using products or even working to create campaigns for brands.
• News, once a place for objectivity, is not immune to placement with MSNBC's Morning Joe moderators drinking Starbucks coffee and saying they are proudly sponsored by Starbucks. Starbucks even sells a brand of coffee called Morning Joe Gold Coast Ground Coffee.
  
• Commercial Alert, co-founded by Ralph Nader, a consumer activist group opposes advertising to children and the commercialization of culture. In 2004, they called on the US government to label product placements. The FTC rejected the labeling saying there was no harm done and that the placements did not deceive or mislead consumers as no claims about the products were made. In the UK broadcasters are required to inform viewers by displaying the letter 'P' for three seconds at the start and end of a program containing product placement.

  No Space is safe

• Toronto's downtown is becoming a clone of New York's times Square
• If magazines could talk...oh yes they can Sept 18, 2009 issue of Time featured the first video ad in print from Pepsi. The video appeared in magazines sent to NY and LA Created by Americhip, each can handle 40 min. The screen is thin transistor liquid crystal 2.7 mm think with 320x240 resolution, battery lasts 65-70 min and can be recharged by a jack on back http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10313064-93.html
• in 2006 CBS put ads on eggs; see eggvertising and US Airways had advertising on its airsickness bags!
  Shocking Interactive Billboards

There has been an explosion of interest bringing augmented reality applications and browsers to mobile devices with GPS, cameras and compasses. Mobile AR can create a new level of mobile interactivity in gaming, travel, retail, social networking and education applications. A view facing north on New York's Madison Avenue might show the name of a store with a special offer, the nearest ATM machines or subway entrances, or information and links to an historic building. You might find the nearest locations of subways or bars or be able to see virtual displays of information about objects. (source:http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2010/01/05/urnidgns852573C400693880002576A20075C9C0.DTL

See how Stella Artois is using AR

Or this one from 2015 Augmented Reality Campaign for Walking Dead

Does the previous heading sound like an oxymoron?
Do marketers give people what they want or tell people what they should want? Are people less happy because of the gap they see in what the media tells them they need and what they actually have?

Do marketers create artificial needs?

• Premium high octane gasoline is used by one third of motorists, even though 80-90% of cars run well with regular gas. Is this because of advertising? Is that ethical?
• People feel imperfect so they are increasingly turning to cosmetic enhancements and surgery, even dogs get plastic surgery. Is this the result of unattainable images of beauty that we see reflected in ads? Is that ethical?
• What does it take to cross the line in the world of advertizing?

Organizations that monitor, regulate advertising

• Marketers and business people are monitored by various codes of conduct. In the US the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) looks into advertising complaints in these areas: The nature of the products being advertised; The timing of certain ads; Commercials believed to be indecent or in poor taste and False and misleading advertisem*nts.
• There are also Canadian/American Marketing Associations.Advertising Standards Canadais a not for profit self regulatory body that administers the Canadian Code of Advertising Standards, handles consumer complaints, and for a fee they give pre-clearance to ensure ads meet standards. There is also CRTC in Canada approves commercials for airing, the LLBO in Ontario monitors and approves liquor and beer ads, and television Networks and ad agencies that have screening committees
  
• Canadian/American Marketing Associations, Advertising Standards Canada,broadcast, print standards: CRTC, LLBO, Networks

Non Profits

• An organization called About Face posts articles and offenders of advertisem*nts that promote false reality of body image and negative stereotyping of women To read an article on body image click. About Face Facts (outside link)
• The FCC (Federal Communications Commission) received 3400 complaints in Jan 2005 about a radio promotion- the "Breast Christmas Ever" where women were asked to write essays and win breast enlargements. See Breast Christmas for the story

THE COMMERCIAL CLOSET - ADRESPECT

Another organization that examines ads was formerly known as The Commercial Closet and now is known as AdRespect. They are a non profit educational project that explores "the range of representations of gender and sexuality in print and advertising." The organization does not enforce rules or attempt to pressure offenders; instead they honour excellence in LGBT portrayals, and try to raise ad industry awareness of the issues of hom*ophobia and transphobia.Their best Practices Guidelines show how to create respectful representations of LGBT people.

From their website,

"Advertising is a powerful medium. Although LGBT-inclusive commercials are still relatively rare, they have tremendous power to promote visibility and change hearts and minds. That’s why it is so vital that advertising is inclusive of the LGBT community while avoiding hom*ophobia and transphobia. AdRespect is here to educate, entertain, encourage best practices and bring awareness."

Big Brother is Watching - Privacy

Behavioral Targeting (Cookies, Flash Cookies, RFID)

There's a common phrase that has been making the rounds for a few years. It goes something like this "If you're not paying for it, you're the product" or "When something online is free, you're not the customer, you're the product." The basic idea is that these so-called "free" online services are not really free. The cost may be our privacy. When consumers use these "free" services, money is made on the massive amounts of data extracted from the users. In this section we'll be talking about the techniques companies and marketers use to know us online. For them this is not the dark side, but for the consumers, these techniques may feel like a step too far into our private lives.

Behavioural Targeting

Behavioral targeting refers to a method of tracking frequent and popular searches made by a browser using sophisticated Internet technology. The purpose of behavioral targeting is to deliver more relevant advertisem*nts and links to a browser based on what a computer perceives to be their interests and priorities of a user.

Every time we visit a website information is collected about us. One quarter of most popular sites place "cookies" on your hard drive to track information on you. This is called Behavioural Targeting.

URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZmh7gScF08

But now it will take more than deleting cookies on your computer because there are also Flash Cookies that are stored in a more obscure place on your computer and they can reinstate the information of traditional cookies. If you use Firefox there is an addon called Better Privacy that will remove them https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/6623/ For more information see the Wired article here http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/08/you-deleted-your-cookies-think-again/

Addressable advertising is sending a message or media content to a specific device or customer based on their address. The address of the customer may be obtained by searching viewer profiles to determine if the advertising message is appropriate for the recipient. The use of addressable advertising allows for fast and direct measurement of the effectiveness of advertising campaigns. Personalized Viewer-specific Content, Behaviour-based Profiling, One example of this would be sending different ads to different households who may be viewing a program. The ad sent to each household would be specifically targeted to them.

Ads based on something we just did will produce a specific ad for us. For example, you buy a coffee at Tim Horton's in the morning, ads appear before you for things that will go with your coffee.

Watch how AT&T talks about Addressable Advertising

Fingerprinting

It is no longer just cookies that are tracking us, now marketers are using invisible techniques called Fingerprinting that use information about our devices to identify and track us.

Fingerprinting includes looking at the different characteristics of our mobile devices; for example our screen resolution, operating system and computer model. They triangulate this information figure out our location and follow us as we browse the web and use different apps. When they get enough info they can create a profile in a way similar to a fingerprint. This particular type of tracking happens in the deep background so we don't know about it. Every time we install something on our devices that item first learns about our system. Safari browser and Firefox have some protections against fingerprinting and there are some browser ad dons that can block fingerprinting. (Source https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/03/technology/personaltech/fingerprinting-track-devices-what-to-do.htmland https://pixelprivacy.com/resources/browser-fingerprinting/)

Contests/Warranties

We innocently fill out forms to enter a contest, or fill out warranties, but does the information go where we think it does?

Computer Chips

Did you know that some companies put a computer chip in their products. It's called RFID technology. Marketers are also harnessing the power of NFC (Near Field Communications) to wirelessly transmit data between devices. A scan from your cell phone can quickly transmit data to your device.

The Minority Report is upon us, but Billboards in the US can now track what radio stations cars have tuned, see the story Billboards are Listening (inside link) and in 2010 in Japan facial recognition software checks faces and sends messages to passers by and RFID technology could identify buying preferences. See more in my blog post http://whatit*ayswhatitmeans.blogspot.com/2010/08/minority-report-billboards-on-way.html

According to Ken Hardy Marketing Professor at Western hypersonic sound communication is the next thing Coming from a source like a billboard, the sound will not be heard until it bounces off an object- a person. The voice could be that of a celebrity spokesperson. http://www.adpunch.org/entry/hypersonic-sound-marketingnow-ads-will-talk-to-you-directly/

According to arstechnica.com marketers in 2011 are using a new system called Footpath to track shopper's cell phone signals during their travels inside malls, "It uses monitoring units distributed throughout a mall or retail environment to sense the movement of customers by triangulation, using the strength of their cell phone signals. That data is collected and run through analytics by Path, and provided back to retailers through a secure website." The data can be used to encourage sales. Footpath the signal fingerprint of the phone and gives a record of where the phone has travelled. Data from this can be combined with other sources of data like surveillance video or point-of-sale transaction to potentially get a detailed profile of the phone's owner. Some suggest that this type of tracking may be illegal in the US.see more here)

Addictive Consumption

Compulsive Consumption

• People shop to solve all sorts of problems such as tension, anxiety, depression
• Gambling is an example of consumption addiction
• The "Consumed Consumers" are ones who actually sells themselves- by tattooing a company logo on their head or selling a kidney!
• see an example of Richard Hamilton Detroit Basketball player who braided his hair like Goodyear tire at Using your head (inside link)

True Life "I'm a Compulsive Shopper" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOvUbV_WWb0

Illegal Activities

• We all have different value systems.
• One person may never consider stealing, but would cheat on taxes.
• Another would not think twice about sneaking into a second movie free or burning a friend's CD.
• In the past some would buy a CD, burn it and then return it. (Burn 'n Return)
• Still another who would never steal, would go to or other sites to download "free" music, software or movies. The digital generation is used to having everything for free, and many don't see downloading illegally as anything wrong.
• Consumer Theft or "shrinkage" ( not of the Seinfeld kind!) results in higher prices- most who shoplift do not need the items and some can afford them

Anticonsumption

Most people agree that North American culture is very wrapped up in the world of buying. How many holidays can you think of that don't involve buying of things? As we have seen on the previous pages, we can not escape advertising messages. We've seen too that some people actually become addicted to buying. Are we too defined by our possessions? Anti-consumerists would say yes!

Anti-consumption can be defined as an ideology against the continual buying and consuming of products. Anti-consumerists believe that advertising plays a role in shaping our values and culture and is responsible for perpetuating the idea that the more possessions you have the more fulfilled you will be. There are a number of different types of anti-consumerism practices. Let's look at a couple of examples:

• If a product or service is deliberately defaced it can be thought of as anti-consumption
• Graffiti can be seen as anti-consumption. See the image here "The Joy of not being sold anything" or
  

Culture jamming is used to disrupt or subvert by defacing or altering ad material as a form of political expression. It is a movement against conformity. For more information on culture jamming see ADBUSTERS

Adbusters is one organization involved in the anti-consumerist movement. They describe themselves this way, "Adbusters is a not-for-profit magazine fighting back against the hostile takeover of our psychological, physical and cultural environments by commercial forces." Adbusters is known for their spoof ads, culture jamming and activism. For example Buy Nothing Day, a global day of protest against consumerism, and the Occupy Movement.

Adbuster Spoof Ads above and culture jamming activities below

Reverend Billy and The Church of Stop Shopping

There's an evangelical mission afoot- It's the Reverend Billy's Unholy War on Consumption -known for his Retail Interventions...''We must exorcise this cash register,'' 'We are drowning in a sea of identical details!'' his Church of Stop Shopping and their performance art -guerrilla marketing activism may be coming toa Starbucks or Walmart near you.

Reverend Billy, a mix of preacher, televangelist and activist, is a persona adapted by anti-consumerist performance artist Bill Talon. He works along side his Stop Shopping Choir to extol the evils of consumerism and advertising. Through their activism the group has been arrested numerous times

Follow our curated Psychology of Behaviour Page on Scoop.it http://www.scoop.it/t/psychology-of-consumer-behaviour/

Reference as noted above and: Solomon, Michael R., Zaichkowsky, Judith and Rosemary Polegato. Consumer Behaviour: Buying, Having, Being. Canadian Edition. Toronto: Pearson Canada

PLEASE NOTE:

Information on this site is for use of the students of this course. For copyright information of the linked sites please see the respective authors.